Boeing and Airbus battle at air show

Monday, July 09, 2012 - 02:46

July 9 - U.S. planemaker Boeing lands the first blow at this week's Farnborough Airshow, winning an order worth up to $7.2 billion from U.S. lessor Air Lease, as a market share battle with its European rival Airbus plays out. Hayley Platt reports

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Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron may have focused his attention on the Airbus stand when he opened the International Air Show at Farnborough.
But it was Boeing which landed the first blow.
The US plane maker announced a 7.2 billion dollar order from U.S. airline Air Lease for 75, 737 Max jets.
Boeing predicts the fuel-efficient jet will help it outsell Airbus for the first time in almost a decade.
That doesn't worry Airbus' new CEO Fabrice Bregier.
SOUNDBITE: Fabrice Bregier, CEO Airbus, saying (English):
"This year I believe will be a good show and will help us to achieve what we expect this year which is around 650 new orders meaning that in 2011 plus 2012 we will probably sell more than 2,000 aircraft."
The jet market is worth around $100 billion dollars a year.
And even though many of the world's economies are struggling - demand for commercial planes remains strong.
Rich Bergmann of Accenture says making planes cost effective is the key to success.
SOUNDBITE: Richard Bergmann, MD of Aerospace and Defence, Accenture, saying (English):
"They're introducing new models to address these fuel efficiency opportunities in the 787 with the new carbon fibre fuselage, Airbus A350 the same."
While the order books for commercial planes are healthy the defence industry is struggling.
Military budgets have been slashed in many traditional markets.
Giuseppe Oris is CEO of the Italian defence and aerospace group Finmeccanica.
SOUNDBITE: Giuseppe Oris, Finmeccanica, CEO, saying (English):
"It is a problem but fortunately while in some key domestic markets there are reduced expenditure, in other countries there is an increase in military ?? so we are positioning ourselves to try and exploit those markets by staying and waiting for a different position on domestic markets."
SOUNDBITE: Richard Bergman, MD of Aerospace and Defence, Accenture, saying (English):
"In the defence sector many companies are refocussing to new capabilities, you know cyber security is a tremendous need, so we're seeing this kind of shift to defence spending over the next couple of years."
Boeing is also considering a new version of its 787 Derailment.
It again wants to compete with Airbus which plans to revamp its A330.
The European group says the wide-body passenger jet will have an increased range of more than 11,000 kilometres.
It also hopes the enhanced jet will have a buyer by the end of the air show.
Haley Platt, Reuters.

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